There was nothing for you to say as you stood frozen to your spot in front of what used to be the last remnant of your hometown. Katsuki was also speechless by your side as bright blue flames devoured everything in sight. Tears welled in your eyes as your palms curled into fists, shaking with absolute rage.
How could Touya do this to you?! After everything you've done for him? You protected him from everyone when they were ready to hunt him down. You gave him time to spend with his mother, you treated him like a person and not a villain, and for fucks sake you murdered Vixen in cold-blooded revenge for what she did to him and Shinso.
And after everything...after losing your quirks to save him...he still killed the last of your village.
"TOUYA!" You screamed out with irrevocable rage lacing the tone. With eyes as red as spilled blood, you charged into the remaining flames of the building as if the heat were nothing but an empty threat. You were looking for him...you had to get this feeling off your chest. If you didn't see him soon and beat the shit out of him, you were going to explode.
"(Y/n)! Wait!" Katsuki called out to you with a hand outstretched. It was too hot for him to follow you in the fire, so he cursed and used his quirk to get an aerial view of the building. The ceiling was collapsing inwards from the fire, smoke bursting through every window and crack possible. The sun was setting, and soon enough it will be just as dark as the last time your village burned.
Ten years to the day.
You made it through the house and into the back gardens to see Dao covered in trails of scarlet red blood, the fluid dripping out of him and onto the ivory snow. He looked like he was trying to walk somewhere but with the massive gash on his forehead, he had trouble seeing where he was stumbling. His beautiful monk attire was stained with his blood, forever marking the violence that touched a man's soul dedicated to peace.
This felt so wrong.
"Dao! What happened to you?" You called out after deactivating your ghost quirk. He seemed startled by your presence and his footsteps crunched as he sunk into the heavy wet snow.
"You shouldn't be here...you should be getting ready." Dao's voice was unwavering as if he knew this was going to happen. He didn't want your help...he knew that this was going to be his last day too. Your steps quickened to catch up with him, stumbling over a rather deep sudden dip in the ground before matching his pace again.
"Let me at least dress your wounds!" You cried out, begging to help him. Dao waved you off and tripped in the snow himself. He tried to catch his breath and press his golden glowing hand against his cut forehead.
"Please listen to me...you don't have much time."
You shut up real quick and knelt by his side.
"You have to be brave. This...this isn't going to be easy. I know you are angry and that's okay." Dao leaned forward and placed his other hand on your shoulder, his breathing labored. Only now did you realize he had a wound in his lower abdomen too. You had to clench your jaw to prevent a sob from cracking through your throat from everything going on. It was just all happening so fast! This was...this wasn't supposed to happen! You weren't ready for this all to happen again! "Y/N! LOOK AT ME!" He cut through your thoughts after seeing the panic in your eyes.
"S-sorry!"
"You have to channel this anger...this hate...change it into something productive and strong. It's okay to be angry and use it to your advantage. Anger and hate are natural and it means you're human. I didn't agree with the Master when he said returning to your roots would kill you. Your fate has changed so many times this past year that it's about time you held it within your own hands and made the decision yourself. Fight. Fight on! And don't wallow in regret!" Dao's grip on your shoulder tightened and his lips were going gray from the blood draining from his face. If you were expecting anything after the events of tonight, a monk asking for you to fight for yourself was not it.
"I thought...I thought with chi I had to be calm and-"
"Chi is energy. It is life itself. It's your happiest thoughts, your pain, your anguish...those are all things that make you, you. I have taught you to manipulate these things to break and repair things on the outside. Remember there are things about yourself you can repair on the inside too." Dao's hand slipped from your shoulder and he leaned back, holding his stomach with both hands now and allowing them to glow gold as well. The loud popping of explosions in the sky gave away that Katsuki flew over to where you were, the boy dropping down to run to you rather quickly. Katsuki didn't know what to do right now and that was evident in his face alone.
The love of his life was losing everything all over again and there was nothing he could do to stop it. All he could do was protect you. That's all he wanted. Even if the two of you were the only ones to make it out of here, he just needed you to be okay.
"What do you mean on the inside? Dao! Is there something I need to do? Please tell me! I'm not ready for this!"
"Yes, you are. And Bakugo..." Dao turned to Katsuki, a hearty smile on his face directed towards Katsuki who was just putting the pieces together of this grave situation. The Oracle was dead, Dao was dying, Dabi and Endeavor were missing...Katsuki wanted to just take you and get the fuck out of here. "Take care of yourself. And take care of her. She needs you more than you know. You're already a great hero. Keep growing."
Dao laid back in the snow as he closed his eyes and slipped from consciousness. You stared at him blankly, unsure what to do next. Closing your eyes, you tried to find any form of logic...of planning. Next course of action.
"Katsuki...we gotta go...we gotta find Enji...and I need to face Touya." Katsuki could see the tears streaking down your cheeks and how your hands were shaking. Whether you were scared or just so intensely angry from the events unfolding just now...he couldn't tell. Even he had to admit that he wasn't sure how your fight with Touya was going to pan out. The look on your face...it looked nothing like you. The rage was a level of intense that reminded him of how you looked when you faced All for One, but even then you weren't nearly as angry.
All for One was evil in your eyes from the very start.
But Touya?
He had saved you...helped you...cared for you...and none of that mattered anymore. The level of sacrifice you had to make thanks to Touya's presence in your life was far more than what anyone else had expected of you. Despite everything you gave him, he still betrayed you.
Your heart felt like it was physically tearing in two from the pain and indecisive emotion pulling at you from every direction. Part of you wanted to murder Touya for what he's done ten years ago until now.
But when you looked up at these beautiful crackling blue flames that caused so much pain and misery, you realized that no matter how much you fought against it, a part of you would always love Touya.
You made those choices for a reason. You still saw who he was inside for a reason.
It was now up to you to decide if those reasons were still good enough.
~~
"Run the plan by me again," Katsuki asked of you as you held onto his back, legs locked around his trim waist. The two of you were flying through the air using Katsuki's quirk as a way of getting by. Unfortunately for him, his stabilizing grenades were not up north with the two of you and so his wrists were killing him from doing this. It wouldn't be much longer before he needed a break.
"This whole area is forest and so we need to see if we can pin point Endeavor and Dabi. Everything was so blinded by the temple fire that I can't see if they are still close or not. Once I find them...once I get my hands on him-" Katsuki turned his head just enough so his ice cold cheek was pressed against yours, a small drop of comfort swimming in the ocean of feelings your were drowning in.
"Extra, you aren't doing this alone. This won't be like last time. We're together and I'm not going to sit by and let this fucker ruin your life anymore."
"Then I hope you're ready for a fight. I don't think he's acting alone."
"When am I ever not ready for a fucking fight!" Katsuki's lips curled up in a tenacious grin that you could barely see from the angle. After everything...you were just happy to have him with you. Deep down inside, you could still feel that scared little girl that desperately clawed at your throat to cry and scream in fear. Katsuki being here was like a light at the end of the tunnel, the golden dawn at the end of a long night...
...the cracked ice on the surface of a deep-frozen lake.
"I think I see them!" You called out a few moments later when seeing small flashes of red and blue near the Diver's Cliff. It was a small snowy clearing away from the thick brush of the forest, but close to the rocky cliffside that stood high above the icy lake nicknamed in your youth as 'Shinimi Lake'. It was so deep and dark that no one knew what could have possibly been hidden down there. It was like a pit into hell with only the rocky mountain walls surrounding it. There was no way out except to climb, but there was a long, long fall.
Katsuki dropped relatively quickly, adjusting you so you could land next to him without injury. Once your feet were on solid ground, you wasted no time at all.
There before you stood Touya, the man now staring at you in shock and partially in awe of how you looked at him. Your eyes were bloodshot with tears, your skin caked in soot from the debris of the temple you ran through looking for him. You looked as beautiful as a goddess scorned, ready to deliver justice by your hands alone.
Touya never wanted this to happen, but he couldn't help you anymore. Not since you've turned down every opportunity to run. Shigaraki gave him a job to do and with how strong he was now, it was only a matter of time before you would lose.
Enji was breathing heavy, part of his face cut open and his body smoldering from the effects of Touya's flames without his hero suit on. Enji didn't even look like he was fighting back. The glow was gone in his eyes.
"Touya," you hissed with an expression that morphed from grief over your broken heart to a type of hatred you reserved for your absolute worst enemies. Slipping out a small knife from your back pocket, you charged at him the moment his blue eyes met yours. The tears flew from the corners of your eyes as you ran, not even the snow on the ground or the look of heartache on his face slowed you down.
"(Y/n)! No!" Enji called out to you with the first sign of real emotion all day. Enji was ready to stand between you and Touya but you jumped, foot on his chest to propel you upwards into the air. Using one hand to prop on Enji's shoulder, you gracefully flipped right over him and landed with your knees on Touya's chest. Touya immediately fell to the ground with you on top, knife pointed towards his throat.
His blue eyes looked at nothing but you and he seemed so...tame. Like he was breathless and lacked any real fight.
"You're gonna kill me now huh? Is that your master plan?" He asked you lowly with his cigarette-stained voice.
"(Y/n)!" Enji called out to you, ready to pull you off of Dabi but you turned your head with a deadly glare. Despite being twice your size, Enji flinched back. You had never looked at him like this before.
"Shut the fuck up and back the fuck off!"
Touya let out a pained laugh hearing you tell his father to fuck off but it was caught in his throat after feeling water drip on his cheeks. You hovered above him and the hate from earlier had dissipated into pure heartache. Touya's eyes widened when you shakily held the knife to his throat. If you really wanted to kill him, he'd be dead already and he knew that.
And same with you. He could have easily lit you up like paper kindling but he didn't. He couldn't.
He wouldn't.
"Why...why did you...after everything...?" Your voice shook with each word, your vision of his face growing blurrier. "You said you loved me. Is this how you treat the people you love? How are you any better than him?!" Dabi's face contorted into a twisted sense of rage and disbelief over what you said. He quickly flipped your positions, his hands wrapped around your wrists with the knife skidding out of your grip.
"How could you compare me to a piece of shit like him!" Dabi turned to look at Endeavor with eyes that could cut through bone. "YOU TURNED ME INTO THIS! A plus fucking dad over here!" You kneed Dabi in the gut, forcing him off of you, and scuttled away just enough for some distance. Katsuki moved to stand closer to the fight, now in between a tired Enji and his son who was one screw away from becoming loose.
"Enji didn't make you kill the Oracle you fucking dipshit!" You yelled out with pain lacing your tone. "When are you going to grow the fuck up and take responsibility for being a fucking asshole instead of blaming your daddy issues! You made your own choices too. Enji being a shitty dad doesn't make it okay for you to say you love me in one breath and kill my fucking people at the same time! You're a liar, Touya!"
"I fought for you and you rejected my help every time. Do you think I want you to get fucking killed?! I don't give a fuck about any of this. I'm trying to save you! You can't run anymore. I wanted to take you away from this (y/n). I really fucking did and I still do."
"What are you talking about Touya?" Enji asked him, Touya feeling backed into a corner with you, Enji, and Katsuki all standing on the same side.
"What? You thought I came alone? Are you that much of a fucking idiot?" Dabi gritted snidely towards his father. He then pointed towards Katsuki who glared at the villain as if they were born enemies. "You ruined this. I could have saved her. She loves me too you know. How else could an assassin with more kills than me ever hesitate to fucking kill the guy who killed everyone she's loved? She didn't come with me because of you. If she dies today, it's on you," Touya spat out with deep disdain for Katsuki as if Katsuki were the entire reason you didn't run away with Touya.
He wasn't entirely wrong.
You really debated when Touya asked you to run away with him on whether or not you would. You argued with yourself constantly about your feelings for him.
Platonic? Romantic? Was it gratitude? Was it regression?
It was hard to go back to seeing him as pure evil when you knew the context of his behavior...when you knew the reasons why he did what he did. You were sure Shigaraki had a sob story too but did that matter? All villains have reasons for why they became that way. It was out of convenience and your own self-entitled sense of morality that you determined whose story mattered to you.
Katsuki was the guiding light for you when you had none. He was the most like you deep down inside. The idea of forgiveness, like All Might and Deku practiced, forced your feelings of anger into binding submission. Enji and Touya are fueled by drive, hatred, and the need to prove themselves...which ignores how their actions affects others.
Katsuki wears his heart on his sleeve and acts on instinct. He understands how you want to be someone that fights for good but that blanket forgiveness and patience was only ever going to fuel you with regrets. It's why Katsuki would always be the one person who you could trust when all else fails. Touya would never live up to that.
"Your mistake was thinking she's the type to run and abandon her friends in the first place. If you think I'm the only one she gives a shit about then you don't know anything about her," Katsuki stood up for you while positioning himself as if ready to fight at any moment. "You're just a washed up nobody that will do anything to beg for daddy's attention. It's honestly so pathetic that it's funny."
"Let's just...everyone step back," Endeavor tried to cool off the angry group but frankly the attempt was embarrassing. He wanted to protect Touya but Touya wanted to kill him. It simply was not going to work out.
You were growing less focused on the fight in front of you and more on this faint rumbling on the mountain. Knowing Touya wasn't going to hurt you, you turned around to look at the trees which were covered in snow and some with ash.
All seemed quiet for just a moment...and then you watched a tree trunk snap and fall within the forest.
"Someone's here!" You yelled out to the rest of the party, Dabi slowly standing up straight and looking almost anxious.
"(Y/n)..." Dabi called for you as if trying to coax you to stand behind him. You wouldn't.
The next moment happened in a complete blur where a giant dark creature rushed towards you as if to attack, but you ghosted at the last possible second.
"N-nomu!" The creature quickly shifted targets to Enji who had to defend from a fast barrage of punches like All Might used to do. Another Nomu appeared above the trees, flying rather quickly with wings made from a sickly ashen flesh. That one swooped down to attack Katsuki who was able to defend from the attack, but like Endeavor, was forced to separate from you.
"(Y/n)! Get out of here!" Katsuki yelled out for you to run as he dodged the next barrage of attacks from the Nomu. The final swipe got him in gut and knocked the wind out of him, but nothing too crazy.
You didn't move...rather, you couldn't move. Your feet were rooted into the snow and Touya's presence behind you felt more like a lion leading a lamb to the slaughter.
"I gave you every chance in the world...and now it's too late," Dabi spoke in a cryptic tone. He wished he had a cigarette right now.
Your eyes were frozen on the people coming out of the clearing, some of whom you recognized before. Most glaringly, standing directly in front of the group was a man with white hair and scabbed skin as if his whole face had been scratched and picked at incessantly.
"(Y/n)...it's been ten years has it? I couldn't miss an opportunity to wish you a happy birthday, could I?" His voice was so dry and his eyes were completely void of any light in them whatsoever.
A cold sweat dripped down the back of your neck when you realized what was going on. The two Nomu...they were meant to separate you from being saved by Endeavor or Katsuki. You had to fight this battle on your own. Against all of them.
"Shigaraki...you have no idea how long I've been waiting to face you like this..." you growled out while grasping the knife you previously used to threaten Touya with. It fit so perfectly in your hands...and as you took a look around you to observe the League of Villains, you knew now was not the time for mercy.
Death will linger in these mountains tonight, but as for whose body will sink into the snow and soil, that had yet to be determined.